American Bosch Arma Corp.

226 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD American Bosch Arma Corporation 1 and International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 30, 30A and 30B, AFL-CIO,2 Peti- tioner and International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, AFL-CIO, Local 460.3 Case No. 2-RC-7645. January 24, 1956 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before I. L. Broadwin, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. The Petitioner seeks to sever five stationary engineers 'from the production and maintenance unit of the Employer's Garden City, New York, plant. The Employer and the Intervenor contend that the unit sought is inappropriate. The Employer maintains that only the existing overall unit is ap- propriate. The Intervenor argues that the employees sought may not be severed because they have been included for 3 years in the production and maintenance unit, because of integration of power- house and production functions, because of common supervision and conditions of employment, and finally because stationary engineers are not true craftsmen. Alternatively, the Intervenor contends that the stationary engineers belong in the same unit with the refrigeration engineers as their skills are substantially identical and because their work is functionally related. The stationary engineers comprise the plant's entire boilerroom complement. They are administratively part of the maintenance de- partment which includes pipefitters, maintenance electricians, and refrigeration engineers. Like the,others in the maintenance depart- ment, their immediate supervisor is the maintenance foreman. He enters the powerhouse infrequently but at least once a day in order to "sign a book." The engineers work on 5 successive 8-hour shifts. ' The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing. The AFL and CIO having merged since the hearing, we are amending the affiliation of the Unions accordingly. a Ibid. 115 NLRB No. 36. AMERICAN BOSCH ARMA CORPORATION 227 The boilerroom is a separate area, bricked off from ceiling to floor in the northwest corner of a production building. Although there is a door leading to the refrigeration engineers' area of work, the power- house is locked at all times and only the stationary engineers and their foreman are permitted, inside. There are 'lockers and showers in the'boilerroom as the stationary engineers may leave the room only for a few minutes at a time during their tours of duty. The principal duty of stationary engineers is maintaining pressure 24 hours per day in the high-pressure boiler. Also, they operate two low-pressure boilers and make emergency repairs. There is no interchange between the stationary engineers and others, although, under terms of the Intervenor's agreement for the production unit, there have-been trans- fers or bumping into and out of the unit sought. Three of the five engineers are licensed and two of the three were asked if they were licensed when they were hired. A management witness testified that a license is not required by the Employer. As the Board has frequently held, a powerhouse unit is a depart- mental group entitled to a self-determination election despite a bar- gaining history on a broader basis.4 Although the Board has included other categories, such as refrigeration engineers, in powerhouse units where such other categories actually work in close' association with' stationary engineers,' the fact that the stationary engineers are admin- istratively part of the maintenance department and supervised by the maintenance foreman is not in itself a sufficient basis for finding in- appropriate a powerhouse unit limited to stationary engineers.6 Nor does the fact that the skills of the refrigeration and the stationary engineers are similar or identical militate against the severance of the unit found appropriate here. We have held that the American Potash decision does not preclude severance of a departmental unit merely because of the existence of similar skills outside the unit 7 We find no merit in the Intervenor's suggestion that the Petitioner cannot claim historical and traditional representation of stationary engineers under the American Potash decision, because in other plants the Peti- tioner also represents refrigeration engineers and others. The fact that a union which historically represents a craft or departmental group= also represents others on occasion does not detract from its right to a severance election under American Potash.' We also, reject the contention of inappropriateness based upon a claim as to the integrated character of the operations. Such integration is typical of 4 General Electric Company, 110 NLRB 744; Celotex Corporation, 105 NLRB 815. 5E. I, DuPont de Nemours and Company ( Indiana Ordnance Works), 112 NLRB 434. 0 Sche7ing Corporation, 107 NLRB 1540; cf. Chrysler Corporation, 98 NLRB 1105, at 1108. 7 Procter and Gamble Manufacturing Company, 109 NLRB 315, American Potash & Chemical Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418 8 Bisschof flit and 7ingrai,inq, 114 NLRB 1340; Remington Hand, 109 NLRB 622, at 624 228 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD the dependence of production operations on steam or electricity pro- duced in powerhouses involved in other cases in which we have rejected expressly such contentions and ordered severance elections.' Accordingly, in these circumstances and on the record as a whole, we find that the stationary engineers constitute a distinct, homogeneous, and functionally coherent group of the sort which the Board has con- sistently held may, if it desires, constitute a separate appropriate bargaining unit 10 4. We find, therefore, ,that the following employees may constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act : All stationary engineers employed by the Employer in its boiler- room at its Garden City, New York, plant, but excluding all others including refrigeration engineers and technicians, guards, and all supervisors within the meaning of the Act. 5. However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time, but shall be guided in part by the desires of these employees as ex- pressed in the election hereinafter directed. 'If a majority vote for the Petitioner, they' will be taken to have indicated their desires'ta constitute a separate appropriate unit, and the Regional Director con- ducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue a certification of representatives to the Petitioner for the unit described in paragraph numbered 4, which the Board, under such circumstances finds to be appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining. In the event a majority do not vote for the Petitioner, these employees shall remain part of the existing unit and the Regional Director will issue a cer- tification of results to such effect." [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] 9 E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, etc , op. cit. supra; General Electric Company (Fttchburg Works), 110 NLRB 744. 10 Natvar Corporation, 109 NLRB 1278 ; Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 108 NLRB 556; Schersng Corporation, op cit supra; Celotex Corporation, op. cat. aupra; Inter- national Harvester Company, Milwaukee Works, 85 NLRB 1175. 11 Ainerlcan Tobacco Company, Inc, 115 NLRB 218 Dexdale Hosiery Mills 1 and International Molders and Foundry Workers Union of North America, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 4-RC-2822. January 25, 1956 DECISION AND ORDER Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before William Draper Lewis, Jr., 1 The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing. 115 NLRB No. 27.